There’s a primally powerful sales technique that largely goes unnoticed among advertisers who still think selling features and "cool" branding imagery is the way to go.
Here's the lowdown:
During World War 2, The King of retail advertising…
… the first successful marketer to ever write a highly effective introduction to writing copy that “prints money”, Clyde Bedell…
shared an insight that still gets ignored by the drooling HustleBro marketers out there.
His insight?
This acronym:
BOY PT MOM
Because Of You People Think More Of Me
The mnemonic describes the idea that when the prospect gets your product other people will think more highly of them.
In other words: your product conveys status to the owner.
To Illustrate:
Check out how Patek Phillippe does this with just two taglines and a WILDLY powerful image.
Seriously, take in the cut, the scene, the attitude, the hidden message, the identity, the implied material wealth, the human connection, the male virility, the signals conveyed by posture, the exact product placement, the teaching of “status-skills”, etc.
You never actually own a Patek Philippe.
You merely take care of it for the next generation.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
What do YOU think?
Are people with more money than sense buying watches from Patek Phillippe in droves?
‘think they’re running out of stock?
You’re damn right they are.
What Patek Phillippe is doing is EXACTLY the opposite of pushing the prospect’s most obvious egotistical hot buttons and instead they elevate the prospect to the “founder of a dynasty”.
Just check out the copy:
Patek Phillippe
Begin Your Own Tradition
We’re not selling features and benefits.
We’ve elevated sales to a higher level.
We’re selling identity.
We’re selling LEGACY!
We’re enticing people who aspire towards generational wealth to start an actual generational tradition:
Of passing down the dynasty’s founder’s timepiece to their heirs.
Could you think of a stronger way to tell people that a simple, mechanical product will elevate the client’s status in the eyes of others?
BOYPTMOM
Please Note:
The image cannot carry the entire sale itself. It gets help from the copy.
Readers can't deduce the complete sales message from the image alone - like you'll see in many ads around the internet.
The image conveys a deep, primal and irresistible message that would be too crass to say outright. But with the addition of the copy that guides the prospect's thoughts, the reader is now allowed to come to his own conclusions about what to think about the product being sold.
Images are not solely there to draw attention, they are there to convey a deep sales message that would be unfit for copy - but a sales message that is still vital to the sale.
That's why...
... a picture tells a 1000 words - but copy tells the reader which of those 1000 words to focus on.
The Point Where Some Start Doubting Themselves...
By this point people are usually at a place where they think:
“Yeah yeah, Fred. Selling Identity For Expensive Crap Is EASY. But What About…”
… at which point they mention some less prestigious product.
Usually something they’re selling.
So I’m guessing it might be easy to see how to imbue expensive watches with an air of status, but how do you put that kind of identity building into something as boring as…
Canned mackerel?
If you wanna see how THAT’S done, then know you’re one click …
(and zero credit card expenses) … away from finding out.
You see…
I’ve run my own email list for some time, and in one special email sequence I outlined how to build identity into whatever you’re selling - just like Patek Phillippe did.
PS: One of my email list subscribers -Henrik- told me he literally PRINTED that email on identification because he wanted to return to it several times.
Soooooooo…
I’m not saying the sequence has some gold in it.
An enthusiastic subscriber did!
Click here if you, too, want to discover what made Henrik print that email
If you have questions about how to build identity into your product then...
Click the link above to see exactly why such a call is NOT going to be a painful pitch fest - but a 100% useful conversation that WILL help you make progress.